Please Don't Piss on the Petunias:
Raising Kids, Crops, and Critters in the City
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​by Sandra Knauf

Please Don't Piss on the Petunias is a collection of essays and stories by a Colorado gardener with a dream: to give her two daughters the nature-centered childhood she had always longed for. When her husband finds an old house in a quirky part of town, she begins to make her dream a reality.

Engaging, edgy, and often hilarious, Please Don’t Piss on the Petunias follows Sandra Knauf as she turns a weed-filled yard into an urban paradise. Over the course of several chaotic years, she:

• Muddles through "mistress gardener" training, learning the ABCs of horticulture.
• Raises, with her young daughters, exotic breed bantam chickens named after Greek goddesses.
• Goes on her first bee-swarm capture.
• Discovers that a hen in their small flock has undergone a sex change.
• Copes with a series of family dogs: a rambunctious rescue Dalmatian, a destructive black Lab puppy, and a counterfeit teacup Chihuahua with a bad attitude.
• Adds to the animal menagerie: Netherlands dwarf rabbits, fancy backyard goldfish, triops from the age of the dinosaurs, and more.

Through creating a life filled with plants and animals (and plenty of love) Sandra makes a discovery that will resonate with any rebel: Going off the beaten path may be the best way to find out      who you really are.
​     Click on book to purchase through Amazon.com.               247 p.; $14.95 (Paperback)

​10% of profits from sales of "Petunias" will go to Pikes Peak Urban Gardens, a nonprofit whose "mission is to cultivate community through organic gardening and sustainable urban garden projects in the Pikes Peak region. We do this by starting community gardens and conducting educational outreach."

Available in Colorado Springs at:

Hooked on Books (downtown location, 10 E. Bijou St.)

Mountain Mama Natural Foods

Ranch Foods Direct

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Zera and the Green Man 
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​by Sandra Knauf

​On the eve of Zera’s fifteenth birthday, she’s finding little to celebrate. Her guardian, Uncle Theodore (who she’s nicknamed “the Toad”), and his frilly girlfriend, Tiffany, are dragging her to the opening of a fast-food restaurant that will feature the Toad’s genetically-engineered creation “beefy fries,” a concept that both sickens and intrigues Zera. 

As if that were not enough, Zera is in trouble at school for mysterious events that she neither caused nor understands—and her classmates think she is a freak. 

The single light in Zera’s dark birthday is a gift from her grandmother that awakens Zera’s passion for plants and helps bring to light her family’s ancient connection to the natural world.

From there, the battle between those who would violate Nature in the name of greed and those who would protect it evolves--with Zera at its center.

373 p., $2.99 (Kindle); $14.24 (Paperback)

Click on book to purchase through Amazon.com.               

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George Washington Carver: Grandfather of Sustainability
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​by Cheri Colburn

In her excellent mini-biography of American scientist/botanist George Washington Carver, author Cheri Colburn shows that Carver was much more than “The Peanut Guy.” Carver was, indeed, a man for today—the creator of brilliant solutions for hard times, and a champion of lifelong learning, beauty, and common sense.

36 p., illustrated. $2.99 on Kindle Amazon

Click on book to purchase through Amazon.com.

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The Whole Ruth: A Biography of Ruth Stout
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​by Sandra Knauf

A fascinating, in-depth biography of organic gardener/best-selling author Ruth Stout - who was famous for her "no work" garden method in the 1960s and '70s. It's Ruth Stout as you've never known her before - rebel, nonconformist, Socialist, and sometimes (in the garden) nudist!

29 p. illustrated. $2.99 on Kindle Amazon.
 
Click on book to purchase through Amazon.com.

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Fifty Shades of Green     
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Edited by Cheri Colburn

Peek inside the garden gate.
A dozen racy tales await.

Welcome to our garden of naughty delights!  Within these pages you'll discover:

- Virile gods and their mortal conquests.
- A community garden’s secret (and very dirty) fertility ritual.
- An Edwardian dominatrix living out her sadistic garden fantasies. 
- Student/teacher lessons in horticultural hotness.
- Young lovers seeking the help of green witches.
- A beautiful, blind priest who helps an injured traveler.
. . . and so much more.

Fifty Shades of Green is a collection of twelve delicious and erotic short stories with gardening themes. What you'll find in these pages is hotter than the hottest pepper on the Scoville index of heat! And smart, not smutty. Well . . . maybe a little smutty.

**This book is for adults only!**
152 p., $2.99 Kindle/$11.59 Paperback

Click on book to purchase through Amazon.com.

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